Turkish cinema made history at the 76th Berlin Film Festival, securing both the Golden Bear and the Silver Bear in a landmark double victory.
İlker Çatak’s Sarı Zarflar (Yellow Letters) took home the Berlin Film Festival’s top prize, while Emin Alper’s latest feature Kurtuluş (Salvation) was awarded the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize in the main competition.
The awards were announced during the Berlin Film Festival ceremony held on February 22 at Berlinale Palast, marking one of the most significant international achievements for Turkish filmmakers in recent years. With politically resonant storytelling and bold cinematic language, the two films stood out in a highly competitive lineup, placing Türkiye at the center of this year’s Berlinale conversation.
Taking the stage to accept his award at the ceremony held at Berlinale Palast on Saturday, February 21, Emin Alper first thanked his entire team and cast, then expressed his feelings with the following words:
“Kurtuluş is about perpetrators who commit horrific crimes. I wanted to understand their mindset. But I also tried to understand the condition of the survivors. I thought about them a lot. One of the things I learned is that the most terrible loneliness is the loneliness you feel when you are suffering. When you lose your rights day by day, when you are shot with bullets bought with your own taxes, when you are bombed by those who do not even see you as human, in those moments, you are completely alone. When you see that no one seems to care, you become the loneliest person in the world.
Here, at least, we can break this silence. We can remind them that they are not alone at all. Palestinians in Gaza living and dying under the most horrific conditions imaginable: You are not alone. The people of Iran suffering under oppression, the Kurds in Rojava and across the Middle East who have been fighting for their rights for nearly a century: You are not alone. And my own people… You are not alone.
My friend Çiğdem, imprisoned for four years. Tayfun, Can and Mine. Osman Kavala, imprisoned for eight years. Selahattin Demirtaş, imprisoned for nine years. Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu and all the other mayors. And the millions who voted for them. You are not alone. You will not remain alone. We will not remain alone.”
